Well, as Lynky Wynky PMed me, I got this nice 'Forum Vet' tag here, and given a reason: Aresener ^_^

I actually got two questions on this:

1: Like this award and the other ones that can be given, as I'm sure the Admin and S Mod's are working on still, is there like a full list coming on what the other various awards are?

and

2: The 'Forum Veteran' thing, where Lynk made mention that, well, I AM the Minister of Silly Walks in those parts , could there be a sub structure on that award?
I.E. it normally shows in post that the user is a forum vet, but in their profile it can show what forum or forums or even what particular common past-time that said user is part of?

(For instance, give a forum vet award to someone who has gone through an entire year posting in the 1yr thread over at XWA?)

1. We'll have plenty of other kinds of awards posted up soon... it's just that we gotta give the current awards out to everyone and it takes time. It also takes time to make the icons and such and think up good awards to have listed, etc...

2. This thought has crossed my mind too... I'll see what I can do.... but part of what you're asking may require some technical stuff... right now we're only able to manually give out awards. If there is a way to automatically give awards to those who have a certain amount of posts in a particular forum... I guess stoffe and/or tk could help you there XD

yeah, I was looking at a few other people's awards, I saw a Forum Vet one that had a reason like: 'It wouldn't be LucasForums without you.'

If you guys can make that type of 'sub structure' award, that not only should it be automatic, but also make it available to be made where awards can be given out manually. I mean, like for instances like above

[edit] After reading your post EW, I'm not sure how to change that, i guess thats upto who ever likes to tinker and redesign everything *glances at Lynk*

but how about pulling a page out of the Military Handbook for labeling multiple awards for the same type, i.e. adding a bronze star for every additional award of that type, and add a star to replace the bronze ones for every 5 accumulated awards?

[edit2]and for stuff like 'forum contributor' you can add special marks, like the gun qual ribbons in the military, where you have a 'base' qual is just being qualified for that type, but then there is expert and sharpshooter. basically would equate to exactly how anal one would be in 'contributing' to the forums

While I like the idea, will old awards be replaced when they become insignificant or built upon? Like "Notable Contributor" to "Significant Contributor" to "Massive Contributor" depending on how many things they've done/won? Also, "10 Year Veteran" should replace the regular "Veteran" if you ask me. I personally think that the awards should be scarce. Everyone shouldn't get one simply for existing, like elementary school stickers. They'd seem more impressive that way. I'd suggest combining the "Contest Awards - Fanfiction" with "Notable Contributors" and such.

Just my rambling. I don't want this potentially great idea to become another LF Store name-glow mishap. Otherwise, me rikey-rikey.

I agree with others - I like the idea, and feel that those who have made notable contributions to LF should be recognised, as should those who wins contests, etc, but i'm concerned that it may lead to big-headedness - I certainly don't want to hear about how awesome a person is because they have one.

Are there measures in place to prevent that?

(I hope that people don't think this as petty, it seems like a valid point)

Well, I like the idea, even though it's not the final version. Basically, as I see it, you need to do one of two things regarding award, or badge types:
1) make more precise categories (for example, if there's a fan-fiction contest award, there should probably be a fan-art contest award too, since art is also accepted, at least at Javyar's), or
2) make more general categories (for example, as some suggested merge the contest winner categories with the notable contributor category).

I do agree that the staff member award/badge seems kind of redundant, seeing how both current and retired staff members are easily recognizable and respected for their status by most, if not all members (another option is to simply limit it to retired staff members as a form of "thank you for your long service" plaque).

I agree that the veteran awards shouldn't be given based on the number of posts, as it could cause spamming problems. I do think, however, that the criterion for the veteran award/badge should be more clear and the same for everyone (perhaps a good solution is to put the number of years a person has been a member as a criterion as it's more objective and makes it easier to give the badge automatically, if at all possible)

As for winning the same award over and over, my suggestion is to, if possible, define a quantity column in the awards/badges profile tab, or to limit the award category as one-per-member (meaning one member can't win the same award type more than once). The third option is to keep it as is - when someone wins one more award of the same type the mods add another item to the "reason for the award" list. Though this option might prove overwhelming for the mods as they have better things to do than spend time editing and adding awards. Considering this, there might (or might not) be a need for a special moderator category - award moderator, which would be people who would solely be in charge of maintaining the award/badge system (giving out, editing awards, etc).

That's about all I've got when it comes to constructive suggestions. I hope it helps at least a little. As for anything else, I can only offer to help out with the award/badge pictures, as I'm very skilled with Photoshop, but I hear you have that covered (the offer stands, though, if the need arises).

While I like the idea, will old awards be replaced when they become insignificant or built upon? Like "Notable Contributor" to "Significant Contributor" to "Massive Contributor" depending on how many things they've done/won? Also, "10 Year Veteran" should replace the regular "Veteran" if you ask me. I personally think that the awards should be scarce. Everyone shouldn't get one simply for existing, like elementary school stickers. They'd seem more impressive that way. I'd suggest combining the "Contest Awards - Fanfiction" with "Notable Contributors" and such.

Just my rambling. I don't want this potentially great idea to become another LF Store name-glow mishap. Otherwise, me rikey-rikey.

I for one enjoyed the mess that was the Lucasforum store/battle system.

Even though glowy names didnt work in firefox.

Last.FM - Ow, give up the funkLet the truth of love be lighted
Let the love of truth shine clear
Sensibility
Armed with sense and liberty
With the heart and mind united
In a single perfect sphere

I'd like to point out that we'll probably end up having around 20 to even 40 badges at the most once we make all of them... well ideally I'd like them to be that many. Also, there are certain badges which will probably be award multiple times (at least we're talking about that as a possibility)... I think people shouldn't really be concerned about things like the 10 year badge replacing the normal veteran badge. Once we get the system running at 100% all of these seemingly big issues aren't going to seem important anymore.

Also, we're also planning on having some badges where members can nominate other members to get this badge... and provide evidence as to why they should get that badge. I think that should alleviate some fears people may have about it being about who sucks up to the moderators.

I'd like to point out that we'll probably end up having around 20 to even 40 badges at the most once we make all of them... well ideally I'd like them to be that many. Also, there are certain badges which will probably be award multiple times (at least we're talking about that as a possibility)... I think people shouldn't really be concerned about things like the 10 year badge replacing the normal veteran badge. Once we get the system running at 100% all of these seemingly big issues aren't going to seem important anymore.

Well it's not really a that big of an issue, it's just why not take in a few ideas outside the admin and mods while you're still creating the system?

Quote:

Also, we're also planning on having some badges where members can nominate other members to get this badge... and provide evidence as to why they should get that badge. I think that should alleviate some fears people may have about it being about who sucks up to the moderators.

thats a good idea
I'd just like to nominate (now) Kjo for his whoring up the various forums with his "Kjo Round's" a few years back :P

Besides making the forums more fun and colorful, I'm guessing these badges are there to also promote the friendly atmosphere, civilized behavior, obeying the forum rules, etc. That said, it might be a good idea to have one or two badges that can be won fairly easily, so as to motivate people to participate in various other forum activities.

As far as badge suggestions go, I have a couple of those for everyone's consideration:

People Person - given to members who have <number> or more friends on the forum.

Game Master - for those active in the RP sections. Perhaps there could be a thread every few months for members to nominate the best forum RPs and the member who started the "best forum RP" in that period would get this badge.

I've noticed there's a new "Helpful" badge. My last suggestion would be that either this one, or the "Notable contributor" badge be also given to members who have contributed to the forums by making a significant amount of avatars/signature images/banners/etc for their fellow members.

I don't think that it's such a bad thing for staff to have a badge showing that they're staff - the staff over at Total War Center, for example, have both bold, coloured, text, and badges denoting that they're a member of staff.